As you could probably tell from this post, I had no end of love for Fuck Button’s ‘Tarot Sport’ last year, and even went so far as to crown it my Album of the Year to anyone who’d listen. And I’ll tell you something for nothing, sure it can be kinda tough to pin them to the ground, but once you do, septuagenarians make for great listeners. They loved my lists. The album itself was almost unimpeachably brilliant, but the demands of the modern music world mean singles must be released, so a few weeks back the Buttons put out the fourth track, ‘Olympians’, on super pretty coloured 12″, replete with band designed Magic Eye cover art. Oooooh. Ahhhh. The track itself is 11 minutes of soaring, cascading, almost overwhelming electronica, so it’s not really the most “radio friendly single” on the planet, although the release does include a sub-4 minute edit just in case an adventurous radio station feels like butchering what is a really quite remarkable piece of sonic art for the demands of the audio broadcast format. NOOOO! MAKE THEM LISTEN TO THE WHOLE THING, YOU FOOLS!

There’s also a couple of obligatory reworks included, the most notable of which is a gorgeously understated and almost antithetical take on the piece by J. Spaceman of British shoegaze demigods Spiritualized. It’s a quiet, guileless and warming song, although the latter of those might just be because of the included fireplace crackles. Either way, a more different aural experience to ‘Olympians’ it is hard to imagine, but perhaps because of that it feels like a perfect and necessary counterpoint to the relentless assault of the original. Music for the long, hungover drive home, or for a silent moment with a new lover. Both of which really, really could not be said about ‘Tarot Sport’.

Fuck Buttons – Olympians (Spaceman vs. The Olympians Remix)

And just because it’s a) an incredible piece of dance music; and b) a fairly succinct symbol of how much influence the mighty Andrew Weatherall had on Tarot Sport, here’s his remix of ‘Sweet Love for Planet Earth’, off the ‘Colours Move’ single taken from their debut album ‘Street Horrrsing’. In a word: epic. In another, less real word: awse.

Fuck Buttons – Sweet Love For Planet Earth (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

The single is out through ATP Records, and can be purchased in 12″ and digital formats.

So, when are they coming to Australia then?